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Unbelievable

African-American students at Washington and Lee law are protesting the continuing racism at Washington and Lee law. Here are their demands

"1. We demand that the University fully recognize Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on the undergraduate campus.

2. We demand that the University stop allowing neo-confederates to march on campus with confederate flags on Lee-Jackson Day.

3. We demand that the University immediately remove all confederate flags from its property and premises, including those flags located within Lee Chapel.

4. We demand that the University issue an official apology for the University’s participation in chattel slavery, including a denunciation of General Robert E. Lee’s participation in slavery.

If the school does not act by SEPTEMBER 1, 2014 we WILL engage in civil disobedience." [http://abovethelaw.com/2014/04/wherein-black-people-have-to-go-to-school-with-confederates/#more-312824]

It is astonishing that an educational institution would still be honoring the confederacy and the confederate flag 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Why would any African-American want to go to Washington and Lee? Why would any right thinking person want to go to Washington and Lee?

"I met with all the original members of the Committee, upon their request, immediately after they had sent their letter to the senior University administration.

While most of our discussion that evening focused on the demands in the letter, in the meantime I have met or spoken informally with many members of the Committee about their demands and also about changes they would like to see at the law school.

You raise questions about the law school admissions process. We disclose on our website the make-up of our student body and our faculty. The data has always been publicly available. Most of our students — diverse or not — perceive the law campus as welcoming and supportive of all students. In fact, many students — and our student engagement survey — indicate that they value in particular the opportunity to meet and become friends with students who are substantially different from them, which includes racial and ethnic differences.

Many of our students help in the recruitment process for the new class. They share their assessments of the campus and the academic and social climate at the law school freely. As a small law school which prides itself on the relationships students build with each other and with their faculty, we have always worked hard at including all of our students, and will do even more so in the days and weeks to come to assure that all of our students feel welcome and believe that they are full and valued members of our community. In the last year, for example, we have hired diverse faculty and administrators to increase the diversity within those groups as well.

I am saddened that some of our students do not feel that they belong or are fully accepted, and I will work to change that. I am also gratified that our students feel they should and can raise these issues to bring change and improve their law school."